LS460 Projectors Installed

[Jaker]

Edit on 25 March 2012: Included new night time output pics.

Howdy everyone,

I apologize for yet another HID Projector/Retrofit thread; however, I believe this particular setup deserved its own thread for pure self-serving awesomeness. :reddance:

I welcome any and all criticism. Please post respectful comments so that others viewing this thread down the road can learn from it.

On to business:

I purchased my 2012 Limited 4x4 exactly one month ago and I have been itching to do something about the lighting situation. I absolutely love the new ride, but the lack of an HID headlight system really bugged me. Thus, I decided to do something about it.

What really gave me a kick in the pants to explore a functional, safe, yet OEM-looking solution was that potential TRS group-buy thread from a while back.

I didn't quite like the options available for the group buy, so after browsing the TRS website (The Retrofit Source) I decided to go with the following setup:

LS460 Projectors (a shoutout to the family patriarch, if you will)
Osram Xenarc 66240 SVS D2S Bulbs
Morimoto 3Five (35w) Ballasts

My first inclination was to go with the FX-R projectors due to cost, but I really didn't like how small they were considering how big our OEM headlight housings are. Thus, LS460 projectors were the ticket. The sheer size and wide pattern really did it for me. Plus, I thought it would be cool to say that the entire housing was still 100% Toyota.

Anyway, not wanting to tackle such a project myself, I hired Caesar Rowinski and the crew at Light Werkz to take care of the actual retrofit. After purchasing brand new OEM headlight housings from the dealership, I had them shipped to Light Werkz.

Let me tell you something, boys. Caesar at Light Werkz (Light Werkz) is the MAN. Pictures of the build can be seen here: Light Werkz Blog of my Build

Saying they did an excellent job is an absolute understatement. It looks 100% OEM. The back of the housing doesn't even look modified. I $hit you not when I say if Toyota offered an HID headlight housing for our rides, THIS would be it.

On to installation:

Installation was fairly simple. Big thanks to Phil (username philsey) for a thread he created a while back. It definitely helped. Here's the thread I speak of: HID Projector Retrofit Installation

I did a quick alignment and am pleased with the results. I have to be off to a get-together here in a bit and ran out of time for fine-tuning; I plan on doing the final adjustments to the cut-off/beam pattern tomorrow evening.

And before this thread gets too long, and before any of you post :worthless , here you go (pics taken with a Canon Eos Rebel T3i using an EFS 18-55mm lens):

 

[SigSense]

Sharp, both the mod and the pics. Thanks for taking this on.

 

[PhoRunner]

Very nice work. One of the first mods I'd like to do as well. Thanks for sharing.

 

[RiDE]

Looks very good. What color bulbs did you get? 4300k? They look to be the same color as the stock fogs. Did you change out the fogs to?

 

[huntsonora]

How expensive was the labor?

 

[CookieRoe]

Congrats on the lights!! I agree, Caesar is the MAN. I THOUGHT I saw someone get LS460 projects on their 4Runner on their Facebook wall, didn't think it was anyone here. You will love them. I have 2 of lightwerkz's retros.

:cheers:

 

[Jaker]

How expensive was the labor?

$750

Looks very good. What color bulbs did you get? 4300k? They look to be the same color as the stock fogs. Did you change out the fogs to?

Thanks. The Osram Xenarc 66240 SVS bulbs are 4200k and actually look very pure white in person. The fog light bulbs in person are noticeably yellow-er. They are stock. I didn't change them.

Congrats on the lights!! I agree, Caesar is the MAN. I THOUGHT I saw someone get LS460 projects on their 4Runner on their Facebook wall, didn't think it was anyone here.

Yep, that was me. :bluejump:

 

[Jaker]

By the way, this picture is already in the link I posted at the beginning of this thread (the Light Werkz Blog link), but I wanted to point out the quality of the work from the rear of the housing. I can't even tell the retro-fit is a retro-fit. It looks like it came from the factory this way.

 

[westwind77]

I purchased my 2012 Limited 4x4 exactly one month ago and I have been itching to do something about the lighting situation.

Ok...2 things....

1) great write-up

2) not really sure why though - why have you been "itching to do something about the lighting"? I guess not just you but the others who have done it as well?

The 4R lights, to me at least, are amazingly bright! They are brighter and push further out than any other vehicle I have driven or been a passenger in. It was one of the 1st 'WOW' factors I had with the 4R. Hit the high beams and they light up further down the road that you can physically see. Besides the 'cool factor', I see NO reason to upgrade the lights in the 4R. I constantly pass cars/suvs at night, you can see their light coverage as you approach, and when you pass you can see the improved difference of ours. I have yet to pass someone and say to myself, wow my lights suck compared to theirs.

 

[Jaker]

Ok...2 things....

1) great write-up

Thanks. I tried to make it as informative as possible.

2) not really sure why though - why have you been "itching to do something about the lighting"? I guess not just you but the others who have done it as well?

The 4R lights, to me at least, are amazingly bright! They are brighter and push further out than any other vehicle I have driven or been a passenger in. It was one of the 1st 'WOW' factors I had with the 4R. Hit the high beams and they light up further down the road that you can physically see. Besides the 'cool factor', I see NO reason to upgrade the lights in the 4R. I constantly pass cars/suvs at night, you can see their light coverage as you approach, and when you pass you can see the improved difference of ours. I have yet to pass someone and say to myself, wow my lights suck compared to theirs.

As far as my desire to improve the headlights on the 4Runner, I will say that the stock 4Runner lighting is great for what it is: halogen lighting. However, the stock setup is nowhere near the intensity/quality of my previous rides with HID from the factory nor the other rides currently in the stable (an ES350 and LS430). Is there an overwhelming need for upgraded lights? Nah. But the new setup definitely improves upon the stock setup and brings the truck up to par with what it should be for an approximately $40k truck.

 

[ronsta]

Looks great, I wonder how they would look with the high beams modded as well... hm...

 

[frosty_1]

Looks great!

Do you happen to have the part numbers for the new OEM headlight housings? Also, what did you pay for them?

Thanks!

 

[azn-sensation]

Looks good! Any other night shots of the output?

 

[sandcrawler]

Ok...2 things....

1) great write-up

2) not really sure why though - why have you been "itching to do something about the lighting"? I guess not just you but the others who have done it as well?

The 4R lights, to me at least, are amazingly bright! They are brighter and push further out than any other vehicle I have driven or been a passenger in. It was one of the 1st 'WOW' factors I had with the 4R. Hit the high beams and they light up further down the road that you can physically see. Besides the 'cool factor', I see NO reason to upgrade the lights in the 4R. I constantly pass cars/suvs at night, you can see their light coverage as you approach, and when you pass you can see the improved difference of ours. I have yet to pass someone and say to myself, wow my lights suck compared to theirs.

Thanks. I tried to make it as informative as possible.
As far as my desire to improve the headlights on the 4Runner, I will say that the stock 4Runner lighting is great for what it is: halogen lighting. However, the stock setup is nowhere near the intensity/quality of my previous rides with HID from the factory nor the other rides currently in the stable (an ES350 and LS430). Is there an overwhelming need for upgraded lights? Nah. But the new setup definitely improves upon the stock setup and brings the truck up to par with what it should be for an approximately $40k truck.

i agree with both of you. :
in stock form, i feel the 5G's lighting is quite good. better than stock on my previous '06, in my opinion. but like others here, to improve it even further, i simply replaced the stock lows with Narva H9 bulbs and the highs with the Toshiba 9011 HIR and the output is absolutely fantastic now. i'm content.

that said, i'm totally impressed with all these projector HID retrofits/upgrades that've been popping up like spring, er, bulbs all over the forum lately. so cool. and i've been learning a lot just by looking and listening. i love that t4r.org provides a place for folks show off their skills, ideas and imagination. so many good ideas!

what would really be great is if a TSB for the headlight fogging defect somehow aligned with a mid-cycle refresh including projectors. if the parts were compatible, and it was possible to swap one out for the other, i'd gladly fork over the price differential if it could be arranged. probably a pipe dream, but hope springs eternal, as they say.

 

[Jaker]

Do you happen to have the part numbers for the new OEM headlight housings? Also, what did you pay for them?

I purchased them from Sparks Toyota.Together, they were $422 shipped. I have the part #s on my work laptop. It takes the better part of a century to boot up, so when I get to the office tomorrow I'll post back with part #s.

Looks good! Any other night shots of the output?

I'll take some more pics tonight.

 

[lowrange44]

Very nice! Great write-up and a nice looking mod. OEM looking HID mods look great. HID bulbs added to stock reflectors is not a great look IMO.

Do you know how the projectors are mounted to the housings? I'm wondering if they used an adhesive like some others have done or if they are fastened with some type of hardware.

Also, are you still able to adjust the beam height? I think the adjusters will still adjust the housings but I don't recall from memory and haven't looked under the hood yet to check.

 

[Jaker]

Do you know how the projectors are mounted to the housings? I'm wondering if they used an adhesive like some others have done or if they are fastened with some type of hardware.

I'm not entirely sure, but I believe they're fastened with some type of hardware. Again, I'm not really sure.

Also, are you still able to adjust the beam height? I think the adjusters will still adjust the housings but I don't recall from memory and haven't looked under the hood yet to check.

Yep. I can adjust the beam height exactly like a stock housing. If you look at the picture below, you'll see a bolt that looks like it has gear teeth at the bottom right of the picture. That's the adjustment knob. A 1/4" drive ratchet with 8mm socket does the trick. No need to remove the bumper or even the radiator shroud to adjust.

 

[Jaker]

Do you happen to have the part numbers for the new OEM headlight housings?

I purchased them from Sparks Toyota.Together, they were $422 shipped. I have the part #s on my work laptop. It takes the better part of a century to boot up, so when I get to the office tomorrow I'll post back with part #s.

Sorry, I just realized the boxes I received had the part #s on the side:

Right: 81130-35520
Left: 81170-35520

 

[Jaker]

Looks good! Any other night shots of the output?

I'll take some more pics tonight.

As promised, I've uploaded new pics to the first post in this thread. The first outdoor pic is with just the low-beam HIDs activated. The second outdoor pic also has the stock high-beams activated.

 

[ougrad1]

Is it just me or is it sad that this is not an option on a 40k truck? At least give it as an option on the limited. The explorer and other lesser Suv have it as an option. Heck, even Kia's have them. I'm holding out for it and some other updates in 2013...come on Toyota, pull your collective heads out of your arse.